Adding Romanov sheep blood

[Damm family farms]

Hey there was wondering if anyone has bred Romanov with something like Ile de France or charollais? Was just curious on the carcass quality, obviously I would be breeding the F1 back to a charollais or Ile de France for market lambs. Just curious if I would get above 200 percent lambing rate? Would like to get 2-3 lambs per lambing if possible. As I have a small flock and want to get as much out of them as I can with out loosing too much carcass quality of my lambs. Thanks in advance. Mike

 

[Old Tip]

Are they the ones with the big horns ?

 

[Agrivator]

It's already been done, but with a Berrichon. This is copied from another thread.

INRA 401 was bred by crossing Romanov (for its prolificacy traits) with Berrichon du Cher (for its carcass meat production qualities). It may be popular among French farmers, particularly if they have been encouraged by the French Institute to adopt it, but if it had any merit, surely it would have crossed the channel by now.

 

[Damm family farms]

Are they the ones with the big horns ?

Nope they are usually polled, could you be referring to Jacob sheep?

 

[Boso]

Have had an F1 romanov x charollais ewe. Gave triplets first time she lambed.
Nervous attitude and lack of herd instinct made her always difficult to get in the livestock trailer.
Was pretty hardy but a pain to work with. Mental.
Carcas wise the F1 was nothing to write home about. Butcher was less than impressed. Lacked conformation.
Think the Texel would be a better fit with the romanov to fix the conformation and calm them down and leave you with a much more capable maternal ewe compared to the char x rom. Suf rom is also quite popular over here, said to be pretty hardy.....however would not be might first choice.
Another thing with the romanov imhe is that if not on an accelerated breeding program they will shoot out quads and quints without being able to feed them. They are not a dairy breed. You either need to lower the % of Rom blood (25% is enough), or heavily supplement the ewes with high percentage of Rom blood or breed them accelerated to get the lambing percentage per litter down.

Imhe they are a hyper fertile aseasonal, short tailed, crappy wool (easy to breed shedders from) breed. They are mediocre Mothers, lack milk (for every thing above triplets) and have very poor conformation.

 

[spin cycle]

can you even get romanovs in this country?

 

[Tim W]

can you even get romanovs in this country?

Yes

 

[yellowbelly]

can you even get romanovs in this country?

Are we talking about this country????

It really would help if members would give their location under their avatars

 

[mezz]

Belclare are popular here, especially crossed with a Suffolk. The half breds usually scan over 2. The Belclares have good maternal ability and reasonable conformation. Might be an alternative to the Romanov, which judging from prior posts lacks these attributes

 

[NZDan]

Have had an F1 romanov x charollais ewe. Gave triplets first time she lambed.
Nervous attitude and lack of herd instinct made her always difficult to get in the livestock trailer.
Was pretty hardy but a pain to work with. Mental.
Carcas wise the F1 was nothing to write home about. Butcher was less than impressed. Lacked conformation.
Think the Texel would be a better fit with the romanov to fix the conformation and calm them down and leave you with a much more capable maternal ewe compared to the char x rom. Suf rom is also quite popular over here, said to be pretty hardy.....however would not be might first choice.
Another thing with the romanov imhe is that if not on an accelerated breeding program they will shoot out quads and quints without being able to feed them. They are not a dairy breed. You either need to lower the % of Rom blood (25% is enough), or heavily supplement the ewes with high percentage of Rom blood or breed them accelerated to get the lambing percentage per litter down.

Imhe they are a hyper fertile aseasonal, short tailed, crappy wool (easy to breed shedders from) breed. They are mediocre Mothers, lack milk (for every thing above triplets) and have very poor conformation.

The US have crossed them with Dorpers and Kathdins to produce a composite capable of weaning 200% on open range. Sires must be raised as triplets from ewes that have already raised triplets, main selection is on lamb survival. Of all the breeds measured at MARC Nebraska the Romanov was well ahead for meat quality. Supposedly compared to the Finn they have more lambs and better lamb survival. I can see the place for a high % accelerated lambing flock in the UK.

 

[unlacedgecko]

The US have crossed them with Dorpers and Kathdins to produce a composite capable of weaning 200% on open range. Sires must be raised as triplets from ewes that have already raised triplets, main selection is on lamb survival. Of all the breeds measured at MARC Nebraska the Romanov was well ahead for meat quality. Supposedly compared to the Finn they have more lambs and better lamb survival. I can see the place for a high % accelerated lambing flock in the UK.

Awesome stuff. I love reading of other producers pushing the envelop with litter size and weaning percentage.

 

[Damm family farms]

can you even get romanovs in this country?

I live in Canada

 

[NZDan]

Awesome stuff. I love reading of other producers pushing the envelop with litter size and weaning percentage.

It was an interesting program, they decided that it was hard to select for the ability to raise triplets if the ewes never had triplets, and plenty of ewes could probably raise them if they had them. So they created a flock that had 2/3s triplets and selected replacements from those that were raised as triplets. The Dorper and the Romanov were the two breeds with the best lamb survival and the Romanov gave them 2/3s triplets as a half bred.

 

[NZDan]

Hey there was wondering if anyone has bred Romanov with something like Ile de France or charollais? Was just curious on the carcass quality, obviously I would be breeding the F1 back to a charollais or Ile de France for market lambs. Just curious if I would get above 200 percent lambing rate? Would like to get 2-3 lambs per lambing if possible. As I have a small flock and want to get as much out of them as I can with out loosing too much carcass quality of my lambs. Thanks in advance. Mike

Have you considered the Rideau? It seems to me that it is the most functional of the high fecundity breeds.

 

[NZDan]

I live in Canada

Update your location in your profile, it avoids confusion then. There are Romanovs in Scotland that came from Canada.

 

[Damm family farms]

Have you considered the Rideau? It seems to me that it is the most functional of the high fecundity breeds.

I am considering both . There are more Rideau here in Ontario than Romanov. I just want t make sure that I will see twins and possible triplets. From the F1 crossbred ewes. (Rideau x ile de France) or (Romanov x Ile de France). Here in Ontario it seems that the Rideau usually will throw nothing but twins trips and sometime quads. The Ile de France I have seem to throw twins quite often but still single sometimes too. I will want to breed that F1 cross back to Ile de France rams or charollais rams. To try and keep good carcass for butcher lambs. Let me know what you think .

 

[NZDan]

It seems that lamb viability is more important than the number of lambs born, my understanding is that Romanov and Rideau ewes have good lamb viability even in litters, I read one farmers experiences where the lamb viability went down when he crossed his Rideaus so he has stuck with pure Rideau.

 

[Damm family farms]

It seems that lamb viability is more important than the number of lambs born, my understanding is that Romanov and Rideau ewes have good lamb viability even in litters, I read one farmers experiences where the lamb viability went down when he crossed his Rideaus so he has stuck with pure Rideau.

Yes I guess I could look for purebred Rideau genetics that throw mostly twins and triplets and kind of stay away from the quads and singles. That could be an option. I’m just hoping if I were to go that route that the carcass quality when bred to the charollais or IDF would be of good quality still.

 

[Global ovine]

@NZDan makes a very valid point about lamb viability, do not underestimate the value of survival in multiple litters. Hybrid vigour helps a lot, sire breed vigour during and after birth, size and shape of the lamb, and ewe pelvis size all contribute. Both Charollais and IDF have advantages on the lamb side of the ledger, but Charollais' shorter lactation and larger ewe size (efficiency) may mean it stays out of the breeding ewe mix.
@Damm family farms good luck in trying to stay away from singles and quads. The more one understands the biological hoops a live lamb goes through from ovulation to birth, the more randomness has to be factored in. As "fertility' is a very low heritability trait, the best indicator is BLUP analysis from the lambing performance of the females in the pedigree. If such information is not available, the lambing strings of dams, grandams etc. should be assessed. But keep in mind that over 95% of the reason a certain litter size eventuated was due to other things than just the number of eggs shed during that oestrus, so the occasional single or quad means next to nothing.

Evaluate carcass quality carefully with other traits of economic importance. Throughout the developed world where sheep performance analysis exists, carcass quality only accounts for 3 -4% of the total profit that can be achieved on a flock basis. Number of lambs born, survival and growth collectively contribute almost 80% of profit. So don't add to the breed mix used any genetics that take away from those traits. Confirmation has a large effect on income, but not profit, so know the affects of carcass shape change.

 

[Damm family farms]

@NZDan makes a very valid point about lamb viability, do not underestimate the value of survival in multiple litters. Hybrid vigour helps a lot, sire breed vigour during and after birth, size and shape of the lamb, and ewe pelvis size all contribute. Both Charollais and IDF have advantages on the lamb side of the ledger, but Charollais' shorter lactation and larger ewe size (efficiency) may mean it stays out of the breeding ewe mix.
@Damm family farms good luck in trying to stay away from singles and quads. The more one understands the biological hoops a live lamb goes through from ovulation to birth, the more randomness has to be factored in. As "fertility' is a very low heritability trait, the best indicator is BLUP analysis from the lambing performance of the females in the pedigree. If such information is not available, the lambing strings of dams, grandams etc. should be assessed. But keep in mind that over 95% of the reason a certain litter size eventuated was due to other things than just the number of eggs shed during that oestrus, so the occasional single or quad means next to nothing.

Evaluate carcass quality carefully with other traits of economic importance. Throughout the developed world where sheep performance analysis exists, carcass quality only accounts for 3 -4% of the total profit that can be achieved on a flock basis. Number of lambs born, survival and growth collectively contribute almost 80% of profit. So don't add to the breed mix used any genetics that take away from those traits. Confirmation has a large effect on income, but not profit, so know the affects of carcass shape change.

Thanks for the in-depth feedback. I appreciate it . Honestly